1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an imaging apparatus suitable for medical or industrial purposes, in particular an apparatus operating with x-ray radiation or using magnetic resonance, as well as a method for adjustment of operating parameters of such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An imaging apparatus as well as a method of the above general type are described in DE 102 32 676 A1.
In the operation of imaging apparatuses that are provided for medical diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, the significance of the acquired diagnostic data and the therapeutic success generally require the patient to be positioned in an exactly-defined manner relative to the data requisition portion of the apparatus. A device for positioning a patient for this purpose is known, for example, known from DE 103 40 002 B3.
If a patient is examined by computed tomography, before the generation of the computed tomography exposure, an image known as a topogram is typically generated by means of x-rays as an overview exposure in the framework of the examination planning. For the generation of the topogram, the patient is located in a defined position while a gantry (carrying an x-ray source as well as an associated detector device) of the computed tomography apparatus is located at an established angular alignment. The gantry that rotates during a computed tomography acquisition must therefore be braked to the point of a stop before the generation of the topogram. Due to the typical rotation speed of the gantry of up to three revolutions per second and a mass of the gantry on the order of one metric ton, this entails a significant time expenditure of, for example, approximately one minute. The same time expenditure is incurred in order to accelerate the gantry to the original rotation speed again after the generation of the topogram. Furthermore, an unavoidable radiation exposure of the patient is associated with the generation of the topogram.